Posted on 09/19/2006 8:53:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
Could it be a UFO???
I know! It's so annoying...
Having worked two "station" assembly flights as a launch package engineer, its hard not to enjoy talking shop with people who are so interested in the program, yet I guess I can't poke a little fun at the process...
I know two crewmembers who joined, and post occasionally, on FR years ago...One of them flew on the RTF mission...And the other was an increment crewmember on the station when the Columbia went down...
But in all candor, I stand by my Jimmy Hoffa comment...;-)
And they would most likely agree with me...
It's Kucinich's house!
That's a great guess, especially if they changed the attitude to do the hydraulic tests. Sunlight on a different part of the Shuttle would cause the structure to bend differently.
"That's no small chunk of space debris!"
That would be eight unexplained events. Could be a Taliban in there trying to light his shoe.
Makes me less nervous, actually. As RW suggested above, it's more indicative of thermal effects than of impact (you'd only expect one of those). The Shuttle bends A LOT due to thermal effects -- cold on one side, hot on the other.
If they changed the Shuttle attitude to do the tests, different places would become hot from the sunlight, and a change in the bending profile might very well occur. It would almost certainly be accompanied by multiple "ticks" that would be picked up by these sensors. (And I think they're new sensors ... meaning that this could have happened all along, and this is just the first time it was picked up.)
I'm just thinking of the creaks groans and pops the house makes as the sun moves across the sky. One of these days the gor-tex panels will give a final squeek and pop right off and lay in the driveway.
Exactly.
XENU looking for Tom Cruise.
Tool box?
The hidden Imam
Elvis
175 posts and no Marvin!
I thought that at first as well, until I saw a video clip of the object from a ground station as it passed over a cloudless area. not sure where the clip came from, but it showed the station, the shuttle, and a shiny object that was pulsing as it caught the light. It appeared to be large enough to do so, and was, I would surmise, probably the size of 1/2 sheet of plywood to do this as it related to the size of the shuttle. There was no explanation of the clip, but it was related to this problem.
The size aspect aside, the debris must have come from the shuttle to be close and at the same speed.
Some new info reported, they think the sensors picked up hydraulic noise and vibrations or the thruster pops, but they are not sure which. They don't think it was a debris strike as earlier reported on ABC.
Also, I am not hearing anything that verifies the size of the object. I don't know if I saw something that they did not, or if they just have not yet put everything together.
The object to me, appeared large and I trust my ability to judge spatial relationships on these 2-D pics. I'm thinking it is a reflective blanket section. These are pretty big, about 3x5 in some places.
I am still pretty worried about this, although NASA is not panicking. The crew is in sleep mode and there will be little more for the next 8 hours.
Watching NASA vid feed now for press confrence.
They can't tell how large it is.
seems to be pacing the shuttle.
I'm guessing it is debris off the shuttle.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.